- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385508409
- ISBN-13: 978-0385508407
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 16.3 x 2.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 708 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,309,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)
41 of 41 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An involving thriller, Jun 20 2004
By Alexander Gitlits - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The White Russian: A Novel (Hardcover)
I wasn't sure about "White Russian" when I started reading it. Historical mysteries are not the easiest books to write and, from my point of view, a novel in this genre can turn only two ways - a great one or a bad one. Also, as I am Russian, a foreigner writing about my countrys' past... well, let's just say, that some books about Russia, I've read were laughable in there depiction of the country.Luckily, all my suspisions were proven wrong.
The book starts with two bodies found on the ice of Neva river on the first day of 1917. St. Petersburg is a frozen city on a brink of revolution. The government is in dissaray, as people think not of how to prevent a revolution, but how to save themselves when it comes. In comes Alexander "Sandro" Ruszki - the Chief Investigator. He is one of those officers, who will hunt down the truth whatever it takes. And pretty soon the trail takes him to rather high places...
But the book is not just a mystery - it's a story about people, who got caught in extraordinary moment in history - about love, honor, trust and hard choices you sometimes has to do to survive.
The recreation of the place and period is near perfect. There are some minor issues, but I don't think that any reader outside of Russia will notice them.
This is a very strong book, weaving a story around the real facts and persons. If you are interested in Russia, it can give you a good insight into its past and the Russian people.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Dark Time, May 9 2003
By Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The White Russian: A Novel (Hardcover)
Some early reviewers of The White Russian complained that it was not as "atmospheric" as Tom Bradby's earlier Master of Rain, which was set in 1926 Shanghai. I have to disagree. The White Russian is an all-around better book in that it is plotted with more depth and believability than the earlier novel, and the atmospheric elements are better integrated with plot and characterization. Master of Rain was enjoyable, but The White Russian is better than that.Bradby has set his second thriller to be published in the US in St. Petersburg, Russia, within weeks of the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas. It is New Year's 1917, dark and cold. There is little cheer. Russian troops are being slaughtered in World War I. Professional troops have been sent to the front, and only disgruntled reservists are left in the capital. There are food shortages, and the sense of unease is so great that some are willing to put a date to the explosion of revolution.
Sandro Ruzsky has just returned to Petrograd, as his city is now called, following three years of exile in Siberia. He is a detective from a noble family, which has not welcomed him home. Within a day of his return, he is on the case of two very brutal murders-a man who turns out to be an American revolutionary and a young woman who was a nanny to the Tsar's son. The search for the killer will take Ruzsky to the Tsarina's sitting room, tenements of reeking squalor, his family home, and backstage at the Imperial ballet.
The plot is tight and intricate without being ridiculously convoluted. The characters have meat and gristle. Within a very short time they will be plunged into terror and anarchy. It would be interesting to check in on Ruzsky on New Year's 1918 to see whether he or any of the other characters in The White Russian are still alive.
Although Tom Bradby does not write with the existential ache of Martin Cruz Smith, he is able to touch the underlying disquiet of a time and place. This is a very evocative and satifying thriller.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great follow-up to "The Master of Rain", July 10 2004
By Todd, fiction junkie - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The White Russian: A Novel (Paperback)
I read a lot of historical fiction. The two things that draw my attention & garner my enthusiasm are (1) authentic historical setting & details, and (2) a plot & characters more interesting than a mere "history book". In his first novel "The Master of Rain" set in 1920s Shanghai, Tom Bradby delivered on both of these in spades. As a follow-up to this impressive debut, "The White Russian" does not disappoint.Set in St. Petersburg during the first stirrings of the Bolshevik revolution, this book rings with impressive authenticity. The detachment of the Tsar's regime, the role of the secret police, the aristocratic class & their sense of entitlement, the desperation of budding revolutionaries, all of these ring true. A great setting for a murder mystery, as the story's hero, a discredited police inspector, finds two bodies on the frozen river outside the Tsar's winter palace. As the book begins, Inspector Ruzsky has no idea the complex & twisted path his investigation will take before the killer or killers are finally revealed.
This author is a major new talent in historical fiction, & has twice now mastered all the elements of an engrossing story that transports us to another time & place. Where to next, Mr. Bradby?
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